Like a Wheel
by alphayamergo
Summary: 'It's just a coincidence,' she told herself. 'A coincidence. That can't be him.' But she'd recognize that man anywhere, and unbidden, the memory of Jem's beliefs came back to her: the world was like a wheel. (Tessa meets Will again. Oneshot.)


**NOTE: You can either pretend that this is before Tessa and Jem reunite or after Jem has died. I haven't dated this, so you can imagine it either way.**

**I don't own any of the characters!**

Often, Tessa thought that immortality is the loneliest of all existences.

Oh, yes, she had some friends amongst the immortals – Magnus being the first to spring to mind – but when you lived so long, meetings tended to only be once every few decades rather than a regular thing, as mortals did it. And there were very few friends you could make, really, unless you wanted to have your heart broken every few decades. Only immortals.

Tessa had learnt that the hardest of ways.

Her husband and children were all dead of old age, and her grandchildren would soon go the same way. She had checked on them every so often, but her heart was still too raw from Will's death to stay long.

It would _always_ be too raw, she thought.

The busy London streets continued around the seemingly young woman, not paying any heed to her or to her sad thoughts. Everything had changed since she had first arrived in the British Isles, but she adapted easily to it. She had read some books, lately, that featured immortals being unable to adapt to the modern world, but she'd always found that to be quite wrong. Even if she still couldn't work out how to use facebook.

Tessa turned to go back to her apartment. Darkness was beginning to fall and she hadn't dressed warmly enough for the London night. She rubbed her hands against her arms, hoping to warm herself up, and accidentally bumped the bracelet on her wrist. She fingered it, hardly noticing she was doing so, smiling a little at the memories associated with it. At almost the same moment, she looked up –

and stopped dead.

Her eyes had locked on to a young man with black hair and his back to her. '_It's just a coincidence_,' she told herself. '_A coincidence. That can't be him._' But she'd recognize that man anywhere, and unbidden, the memory of Jem's beliefs came back to her: the world was like a wheel. That was impossible, wasn't it? Reincarnation never happened. Magnus would have mentioned it, if it did, or someone else. It was a coincidence. Keep walking, Tessa, there's nothing to see here –

As if feeling her watching him, the doppelganger turned around. At the sight of her, he froze. There was no denying who he was now. They stared at each other, not noticing and not caring about the world passing by around them. His lips seemed to move in slow motion as they silently formed her name: "_Tessa._"

Her voice erupted from her throat uncontrollably. "_Will!_" she screamed. She charged across the space between them madly, needing to get to him, to feel his arms around her and just to _see_ him again. He met her halfway, and they collided into each other. He staggered, almost fell, righted himself as she flung herself into his arms. His arms wound around her and he pulled her close to him so any space between them was nonexistent. She had one arm on his back and one hand clinging to his hair.

"_Will, Will,_" she whispered, tears pouring out. Her chest was heaving uncontrollably, and she couldn't stop herself from crying. She put her head on his shoulder, cheek resting next to his. "You're back, you're back, you're _alive_…"

"You're _real_," he whispered back. "I almost thought I was going mad – I was born as a mundane, I couldn't find any proof of anything – but I knew it, I knew I couldn't have imagined you." She didn't answer for several moments, just clung to him so she could reassure him.

"You've always been mad, Will," she murmured at last, causing laughter to bubble out of him.

"A tiny bit, perhaps," he replied, making her laugh as well. He drew back, only a little bit, so that he could stroke her cheek, ever so softly. She shivered under his touch. "Oh, Tess, Tess, my Tess…"

After a moment, she grabbed his hand, cradling it within her own even though it was larger than hers. "I've missed you so much," she said, even though those words couldn't possibly encompass the hole that had been in her heart since the moment his eyes had shut for the last time. But she could tell from the look in his eyes that he understood. His thumbs ran in soothing circles against the palm of her hand.

Will didn't say anything in response – after all, that sentence, with all of its context and everything that she hadn't said, was something very difficult to reply to. It didn't matter that he hadn't replied though, so long as he understood. Because, she thought, that was all she could really ask him to do. With that in mind, Tessa pulled his head down so that they're lips met.

Dropping his hand, she wound both her hands into his hair. She could feel both of his arms encircling her back and pulling her as close as she could possibly be. Around them, people were either looking on in disapproval or smiling indulgently. '_Young love_,' they were saying, and it almost made her want to laugh, because there is nothing _young_ about her. There was nothing young or new about how familiar Will's lips were, nor about the way she loved him. She had loved him for over a hundred years. She had loved him longer than any of the mundanes surrounding them have loved their spouses. And she would go on loving him, even while they were lying cold in the ground.

But Tessa turned her mind from that and focused on the warmth of Will's lips against hers and the all-encompassing feeling of love she felt while he kissed her. She felt as if her heart was too big for her chest, as if it was going to burst out. There had only been a few times she had felt like that in her long life: first when she was married, second when she held her darling James for the very first time, and third as she first held her beautiful Lucia.

But all too soon they had to pull apart, both searching for air. She didn't want to lose him so soon after finding him again, especially not from something as minor as lack of air.

"So," she said in the end, "I suppose you'll be coming back to my place, then."

His eyes met hers with a sparkle of amusement. "I suppose I will."

Tessa grinned at him, and he smiled back. She looped her arm through his and began to guide him back through the London streets to her apartment.

It would be all too soon that their story would come to the same ending as it had before, leaving the hole in her heart once more. But for now, she was more than willing to accept her miracle.

She didn't feel so alone anymore.


End file.
